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About the band

Kamyaniy gist — Ukrainian rock band formed in 1998. The music of the band different musical diversity, in which the drive of a modern rock sound filled with melodic ethnic motives. The group's leader, songwriter and vocalist is Yuriy Veres.

As of today, the group has a large concert experience, recorded four Studio albums and founded the project "Classic of Rock in the Ukrainian Style" in which songs of world rock legends 60-80's (The Beatles, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Genesis, Slade, Pink Floyd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Gary Moore, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin) are performed in Ukrainian and in new arrangements.

The history of the group

Group "Kamyaniy gist" was founded on 7 April 1998 in Kyiv Gennady Barabasi (drums) and Yuriy Veres (vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar). Earlier, the group gathered in the circle of friends. Since the first rehearsal, the guys immediately set about creating his own songs. Soon came the first demo-record. Music Foundation began to lay the Roman Sirenko (guitar), Bogdan Shevchik (guitar) and Pavel Kucherov (violin), but subsequently, for various reasons, they left the team.

Regarding the name of the group, it will not appear immediately.

Yuriy Veres: "The process of finding names similar to choosing names for newborn baby. In our case it is the result of joint creative work. At one of the gatherings we spontaneously called various words and phrases, all that came to mind. Sounded funny, and pathetic, and serious. Someone suggested – Kamyaniy gist. I felt: this is exactly what you need. In this phrase there is some special energy. I liked the warmth of the sound, the mystique, though a hint of the stones as associations with the word rock. Therefore the name of our group is not related to the work of Alexander Pushkin's "Malenkie tragedii", as well as with the works of Lesja Ukrainka and her poetic drama "Kamyaniy hospodar".

In 1999 the ensemble was joined by guitarist Victor Chernetsky and bass guitarist Petr Yurgenko. Subsequently, at the stage of one of the capital's festivals took place the first performance of Kamyaniy gist. In those days, in a group also played a drummer Nikolay Sergeev and keyboardist Jaroslav Zdolnik. The team began to perform at home concerts and small venues.

In 2000, Kamyaniy gist became the initiator and organizer of the festival "Rock Legends", which held concerts in memory of Viktor Tsoi, Jimmy Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

In 2001, the band began to tour extensively, performing at various festivals and music venues in many parts of Ukraine. In the summer of the same year the band was joined by bass player Anton Taranenko.

Tour travel brought Kamyaniy gist great experience, many new friends and fans. Not without its amusing incidents.

The musicians remember: "Speaking at a festival from the stage, we saw how the then Director of our group Alexander Kaut tries to stop a man that is pushed to sound with cries of "Urgently turn off the sound!". It turned out it was one of the leaders of the festival, who didn't like our song about beer. Onslaught managed to hold back and we started playing the next song, the words of which the Jura forgot. Remember only the first verse and sang it four times in a row. As the relieved Director of the festival said – "Here is a song, so I understand that deep philosophy...".

The year 2002 was for Kamyaniy gist rich in changes. The ensemble was enriched by a talented flutist Anton Surinam. The group left Hennadiy Barabash, and his place was taken by drummer Ivan Kozachenko. In the same year the team was joined by Maria Nikolaeva, which began to cover the activities of the group in the media. Thanks to the efforts of Mary, the musicians began to appear more frequently on radio and television.

In 2003 the group Kamyaniy gist has released her first album "Tanets so vremenem", which was recorded in record time – within a few nights. The result is a little hooligan and naive, but sincere. The album became possible thanks to the support of Oleksandr Khomenko, who is a longtime friend of K.G.

In July of the same year the band was joined by a wonderful musician, saxophonist Eugene Pryadko, who played in the team until 2005. Also, for a brief period, the drum set played Yuriy Kolesnik.

From 2005 to 2009, the group goes into a sabbatical, during which Yuriy Veres began to write songs in Ukrainian. Kamyaniy gist returned not only with new ideas but with a new rhythm section - the band was joined by drummer Sergey Spatari and bassist Dmitry Backrev. From this point in the history of the group began a qualitatively new period. The musicians resumed touring and began to actively work on creating new songs.

In 2011, the ensemble was joined by ethno-instrumentalist and shaman Nikita Efanov. He played on the Australian didgeridoo, Japanese flute, harp and varied percussion. In the same year was presented the demo album "On the horizon to heaven", a recording of which was made possible thanks to the musician and the sound engineer Taras Bagaco that in difficult conditions of accumulated band and was able to pull the sound to almost Studio-quality.

In 2012, the group was joined by a wonderful flutist Sergei Robulets that Kamyaniy gist recorded the album "60/70" which contains a rehearsal of Ukrainian legendarnyh rock groups of the 60's and 70's, namely The Beatles, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Slade, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jethro Tull, and Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan.

Yuriy Veres about the idea of the album: "I always wondered what they are singing about the Western group. When you listen to English music, swallow it whole. If you recognize the meaning, then only approximately. Anyway, I perceive that way. When you listen to a song in their native language — do not even think about what was going on, everything is decrypted automatically. It was interesting — as will be perceived the well-known English song, if you sing it in Ukrainian, with translations as close as possible and in an entirely new arrangement. The first sign was a song "People are Strange" by Jim Morrison ("The Doors"). Then there was the song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" George Harrison (The Beatles). And here we go...".

At the end of 2013 came the album "Tam, za goramy". Musicians have been accumulating material for several years. During recording was used not only modern, but also a variety of ethnic instruments. The thematic range of the songs is quite wide - from the irony and jokes to deep emotions and philosophical reflections. Song "Tam, za goramy", which gave its name to the album, based on real events.

Yuriy Veres: "The basis of this song incorporated real history: grandfather was killed when my mother was only three years old. The grandmother had to raise four children...".

The presentation of the album "Tam, za goramy" took place during the Revolution of dignity. Subsequently, Kamyaniy gist played a concert on the Euromaidan.

After the release of the album "60/70" several years passed, during which the group received a lot of emails with positive feedback about the project. In 2014, the crowdfunding site online platform "Spilnokosht" from BIGGGGIDEA musicians of Kamyaniy gist began collecting funds in support of the forthcoming album "70/80". After a few months the necessary sum was collected. The project was supported by people from different parts of Ukraine including from the East.

The musicians K. G.: "Smilecast" is not a magic wand, but it's very close in capabilities. The only difference is that the desire must be backed by actions. BIGGGGIDEA team is young and ambitious. It consists of successful people who are constantly evolving...".

The album "70/80" was published in 2015. The disc includes the singing of Ukrainian songs of the legendary The Beatles, The Doors, Queen, Genesis, Slade, Pink Floyd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, as well as Gary Moore and David Bowie. By the way, the translation of the song Coz I Luv U group Slade was created by Andriy Kulikov, famous Ukrainian journalist and presenter. Besides, Andriy himself participated in the recording.

The album's presentation took place in the form of a charitable event, all proceeds from tickets and CD sales were donated to a military hospital - that defining moment when one charity is transformed into another. And even now the album can be ordered on the project website http://7080.kg.org.ua by supporting wounded soldiers.

In 2016 the album "70/80" was published in the new multi-track format AMA. The uniqueness of the format is that the student will have the opportunity to change the balance of musical instruments. The authors of the format are Ukrainian developers, namely, – Anton Maltsev (programmer, candidate of physico-mathematical Sciences, associate Professor, Department of mathematical methods of system analysis Institute of Applied System Analysis at NTUU "KPI") and Andrew Rim (famous sound engineer and record producer, Studio SvOboda Records). "70/80" was the first full album in format AMA!

Kamyaniy gist - is a friendly team with ambitious views on creativity. Musicians are constantly experimenting. In addition to guitars and drums, in the band's songs found a shaman drum, Jew's harp, flute, various percussion, harmonica and even the Australian didgeridoo. Each song is a separate story with its storyline.

Now musicians are working on the creation of the new album, which will differ from the previous one. Tentative album release is December 2016.

News of the band

We are open to dialogue and cooperation with representatives of the media, organizers of concerts, record labels, producers, fans, clubs, journalists. We will be grateful for reposting our news, interviews, photos and always glad to meet you at concerts.